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Spider-Gwen Vol 2 25
Supporting Characters: * * ** ** * * * Antagonists: * * ** ** ** * ** ** ** ** Numerous unnamed ninja * Other Characters: * ** * * * * * NYPD ** *** * * * Unnamed New Yorkers * Samuel Hill * Johnny Cash * * Races and Species: * * * * * Locations: * ** *** **** ***** ****** ******* ******** ********* ******* Midtown ******** ******** ********* ******* Unidentified hospital ******* ******** ******* Upper West Side ******** ********* ****** ******* ******** *** **** Items: * * * * * * * | Synopsis1 = On Yancy Street, Hobie Brown is finishing up a mural of Spider-Woman when he is approached by Frank Castle, who asks if he has a permit. Stating he grew up here, Hobie remarks that the city will paint over it sooner than later but that for the time being Spider-Woman has joined Luke Cage as a member of "Hobie's Hometown Heroes". Castle chuckles at this and remarks that if Spider-Woman ever was a hero she's something else now. Angered, Hobie packs up his supplies and retorts that he paints what inspires him, challenging Castle to name one story where the hero isn't dead. At a seedy bar in Hell's Kitchen, Gwen Stacy - the Venom symbiote transformed into a face-hiding black hoodie, black pants, and a red T-shirt - laments how her "tough choices" used to be easy - the symbiote interjecting with lazy or gluttonous options. She interrogates the Enforcers about the whereabouts of the Rhino. Fancy Dan rebukes her, sneering that Aleksei thinks he can call himself a supervillain after fighting Spider-Woman once. As Gwen clenches her fist and shouts at them to reveal where the Rhino is, she inwardly laments that her dark thoughts and impulses were once nothing more than whispers subdued by her father's instructions to always do what's right. The Enforcers move to attack her, Fancy Dan lamenting that she can't say he didn't try to not be a stereotype. Montana lassos Gwen only to be tossed through the bar. Gwen casually catches Ox's punch and shatters his knuckles with her grip, noting that now every choice is impossible and the voices of her dark impulses no longer whisper but scream. Transforming, Venom snarls that she'll try it their way and speak their language. Recalling all the decisions and events that led up to this point, Venom curb-stomps the Enforcers and grabs Fancy Dan by the throat, demanding to know where the Rhino is and preparing to punch his face in when he refuses to answer. Smashing a crater into the bar instead, Venom picks up a dropped quarter and puts it into a jukebox to soothe the symbiote's bloodlust. At the Dollar Dog, Mary Jane Watson angrily confronts a young man with his hair tied up in a large bun who posits that Gwen Stacy is Spider-Woman, threatening to punch his teeth in if he doesn't shut up. When Mr. Albie comes out to see what's going on, Em Jay rounds on him and demands that he help them. Mr. Albie remarks that he heard on the news that Gwen's father was arrested and then beaten into a coma because of his involvement with Spider-Woman; noting that Em Jay is right to be upset with people spreading rumors but that truth or not Spider-Woman cost him his business and he can't risk such troubles again. Mr. Albie offers a compromise, telling Em Jaye he'll post the fliers and notify them if he sees Gwen... after he calls the police. As they leave, Betty Brant notes she'd have cut the guy for no reason and asks Em Jay why she was so angry when she'd been saying Gwen was Spider-Woman for weeks. Em Jay remarks that Betty saw how Mr. Albie reacted, that a lot of people hated Spider-Woman even before she became Venom, and that she doesn't want to think about what will happen if people start realizing that Gwen and Spider-Woman/Venom are one-in-the-same. In the Jack's on Yancy's pub, the Rhino laughs at Matt Murdock asking if he's afraid. Rhino declares that he trampled Captain Stacy like Murdock had told him to and is now a wanted man, so it makes sense for him to lie low. Murdock notes that it looks like Rhino is scared now that Spider-Woman is on a warpath. Rhino smugly tries to blackmail Murdock by threatening to provide evidence that he is the Kingpin of Crime unless he pays hush money; but Murdock laughs and informs Rhino that Captain Stacy wasn't just any cop but a father-figure not only for half the NYPD but for Spider-Woman herself, and that there's only so long that even the Kingpin can protect him from her rage. Venom cocoons Fancy Dan in webbing and dangles him upside-down from a flagpole, the symbiote trying to persuade Gwen to sever the webline and let him fall to his death. Dan demands to know why she's doing this to him when he's a nobody who doesn't know anything. Chuckling menacingly, Venom remarks that she thought he was a big man and that making an example out of him should make his friends in the underworld more talkative, using a claw to slowly cut the strands comprising the webline. Terrified, Dan protests that he does know things and can help her; and Venom furiously asks how someone like him could help her, the symbiote telling her to kill him anyway. A smoke bomb goes off behind her and Otomo of the Hand appears; and as Venom turns to confront him the ninja sneers at how quickly she succumbed to the symbiote but tells her he didn't come to fight. Instead, Otomo tosses a matchbox from Jack's on Yancy's pub and informs her that he bears a message from the Kingpin: the Rhino is no longer under the Hand's protection and if she wants him she's welcome to him. Venom incredulously asks if Murdock is joking, since she knows he masterminded everything and that all this is on his head. Brandishing his katana, Otomo tells her that vengeance for Captain Stacy is hers and he suggests she takes advantage of the Hand's magnanimity while the offer lasts. Frank Castle observes the conversation through binoculars, while - ignored by Otomo and Venom - Fancy Dan calls out for help as the last strands of the webline holding him up break. Murdock notifies the NYPD that Spider-Woman is headed to Jack's on Yancy Street, causing the officers to break out riot gear. In Jack's pub, Murdock smugly offers to buy a drunk and depressed Rhino another pickleback round, Aleksei lamenting how easy he is to be manipulated. Venom arrives and furiously confronts Rhino, shouting that he owes her blood and she's come to make him pay. Murdock cheerfully stands up and says this is his cue to leave as Rhino incredulously asks what happened to her. Venom snarls that she's not letting Murdock go anywhere and that he's next; but Murdock uses the dimensional portal watch to make his escape, remarking that he was the one who gave her the power to seek revenge in the first place and asking her whether she's going to use waste this moment to avenge her father pursuing him or punish the person directly responsible for her father's coma. Frank Castle watches through binoculars as the NYPD arrive at the bar, noting that sometimes a battle must be sacrificed to win the war. As the brawl between Venom and Rhino spills out into the street, Castle laments that he let Murdock manipulate him into wasting his time chasing his own demons and picking fights with Spider-Woman. As Venom garrottes Rhino with a webline and tries to strangle him, the NYPD officers fire tear gas at them, ready their sonic batons, and set up a camera. Gwen realizes this was a setup to discredit her father's case and finally get the proof they want that she is a murderer, but the symbiote snarls that they don't care. Using the tear gas as cover, Castle punches out one of the NYPD officers and takes his sonic baton and gas mask. The Punisher smashes the sonic baton into Venom, stripping Gwen of the symbiote. As she reels from the blow and demands to know what he's doing, the Punisher tells her to stand down and charges his War Machine gauntlet, blasting a hole into the Rhino's chest. Looking down at the Rhino's corpse, Spider-Woman seethes that the Rhino was hers to kill and demands to know why he stole her revenge. As the symbiote rebonds to her, the NYPD agents ask Castle what they should do, and he tells them to run as Venom lets out a scream of rage. At Captain Stacy's hospital room, Ben Parker furiously rants to May about D.A. Foggy Nelson's gall, snapping that if he'd done his job the Rhino would've never been on the street, much less in Captain Stacy's cell. May tries to calm him, but he snaps that this is Peter all over again; lamenting that his best friend is in a coma and all he's done is pray for some greater power to intercede and fix everything. May spots the latest issue of the Daily Bugle - the front page blaming the Venomized Spider-Woman for the Rhino's death - and says that Ben is right. Saying that all this started with Spider-Woman and that she is the key to ending it, May tells Ben that they need to find Gwen Stacy as she's going to need all the help she can get. Sitting alone overlooking the nighttime cityscape, Gwen mulls over her rage at not being able to kill the Rhino herself and despairs that she wanted to do so more than anything she's ever wanted before, crying as she realizes just how much the Venom symbiote is corrupting her and that she needs to get it out of her before she becomes a monster. | StoryTitle2 = Marvel Legacy Primer Pages | Writer2_1 = Robbie Thompson | Penciler2_1 = Mark Bagley | Inker2_1 = John Dell | Colourist2_1 = Emilio Lopez | Letterer2_1 = Clayton Cowles | Editor2_1 = Darren Shan | Editor2_2 = Kathleen Wisneski | Synopsis2 = | Appearing2 = Featured Characters: * Antagonists: * * * Unnamed thugs Other Characters: * * Races and Species: * * * Locations: * ** *** **** ***** ****** ******* Upper West Side ******** ********* ***** ****** ******* Items: * * * | Solicit = GWENOM Part 1 Gwen’s life irrevocably changes as she bonds with her universe’s version of the Venom symbiote. What does it mean for her relationship with crime kingpin MATT MURDOCK? With her father? With THE OSBORNS?! Is any relationship in Gwen’s life safe? It’s SPIDER-GWEN like you’ve never seen her before, and this time, there’s no easy fix for her troubles! PLUS: Includes 3 bonus MARVEL PRIMER PAGES! Story by Robbie Thompson and art by Mark Bagley! | Notes = * This issue contains a handbook entry for Venom (A.K.A. "Gwenom") and expands upon the handbook entry from . | Trivia = * This issue includes Marvel Value Stamp: Series C #30: Medusa. | Recommended = | Links = }}